Nice Hat
by Mariana1
Summary: It's Will's wedding day- but is he doing the right thing. SLASH! So don't read if you don't like. W/J Oh and no, I don't own them


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AN: Once again more thanks to Willow for Beta-ing! (Glad you liked it, mate)

And a warning: THIS IS A SLASH FIC!!!!!! (ie. For those of you out there who don't understand m/m relationship) Ok? So please, don't flame me. If you do I shall be forced to set the Black Pearl and its crew of miscreants on you, Savvy? 

It was written because Jack's line at the end just stuck in my head.

And also, before I forget… which I did do (oops bad me!) I DO NOT OWN THEM!!!! Though I would like a Pearl, and an Ocean, and one of Will's swords, and A Jack to go with the Pearl, and a Will to go with the Jack and… I'm babbling aren't I?

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Nice Hat

Captain Jack Sparrow was standing alone on deck, well alone apart from the wind and the waves and the flask of rum perpetually grafted to his side. He was standing there, fingers running over the wood of his beloved pearl, gently, caressing, thinking. Just standing, staring and thinking. Every now and then a phrase would be muttered under his breath.

"Nice hat?" he whispered to the sea breeze, blowing steadily in the Black Pearl's sails. "You could have said anything, you should have said anything else. You said _nice hat_?" he released his hold on the ship and began to pace. The walk was his usual drunken stumble accompanied by the hand gestures that were as much a part of him as his ship, or his title.

"I'm Captain Jack Sparrow," he murmured, "and I chickened out?" he leaned against the rail looking off into infinity. "I should have said 'Nice butt', or 'nice hands'… or 'nice _sword_!'" he smiled to himself for a moment at the intentional double meaning. "But instead," he cursed himself and gestured wildly with the hand in which he was clutching the rum bottle, causing some of it to splash out and onto the deck. It was some estimation of his state of mind that he didn't even notice the loss and carried on haranguing himself.

"Instead- 'Nice hat?!'" he threw back his head and laughed, not a pirates cackle, but an ordinary chuckle, with an edge of insanity and hysteria.

His thoughts this night were turned to what he had just recently lost, probably, he admitted to himself in the privacy of his own mind, forever. It wasn't like he could go back to Port Royal, not with Norrington on his case. Not that he wanted to, he lied mentally, what would it be for anyway? The wedding? His laugh this time had a harsh edge of bitterness to it. To see the only person he'd eve… Jack choked that thought back as soon as it came. Not only was it cliché, it was uncalled for. It wasn't… _that_… Some passing infatuation, a one-sided attraction, not _that_. He was Captain Jack Sparrow, for hell's sake, the most feared (and sometimes most ridiculed) pirate of the Caribbean, he couldn't feel _that_.

"The honest ones," he muttered, "You never know when they're going to do something incredibly- stupid…" and then lower, "… wait till the opportune moment." He almost ran to the helm again, lifting the bottle to his lips only to find it empty, he turned it upside own, shaking the last drops onto the deck. "Bloody empty," he said, stuffing it into a pocket before re-addressing his previous thoughts.

"Yes, that's right, wait for the opportune moment, Savvy?"

*****

Will Turner, Blacksmith and betrothed of the Governor's daughter, stood in front of the mirror, tugging at the collar of his wedding clothes. In a few short hours he would be getting married to the woman of his dreams, but his heart didn't jump at the prospect, as he knew it would once have done.

Once he had thought this day would make him complete, but the closer he had come to it, the further away part of him seemed to be and the larger the void he felt within him grew.

"Why?" he asked his reflection, as though it would have more answers than he did. "I love Elizabeth," his voice sounded strange, even to himself, more persuasive than convinced. He sighed, closing his eyes and falling into a chair, rubbing his forehead with one hand.

"What's missing?" he asked thin air with a tone of desperation. He felt that he was missing something obvious, something vital, and something sitting right in front of him. "What's missing?" he asked again.

"The sea," a familiar voice came from directly in front of him, causing him to sit up and his eyes snapped open to see a familiar and highly welcome face grinning back at him. "Well, that and piracy," the figure said, standing up, hands hovering at waist height.

"Jack!" Will leapt to his feet and embraced the pirate, before remembering his sense of propriety and releasing him to shake his friend's hand vigorously. Jack stare at their hands, as though seeing them for the first time. 

"What are you doing here? How's the 'Pearl'? And your crew? Why are you in Port Royal when everyone's looking for you? I can't save you every week you know."

"I came for the wedding," Jack said, "I love a wedding," his hands embellished, telling tales of drinking, dancing and general merriment with their movements. Will's smile faded and he turned away from the older man, who pulled his chin in as he gazed at the blacksmith's back. "Or am I wrong? Did your girl jilt you at the altar?" The pirate asked, leaning toward his friend, so he was only centimetres away.

Will turned around, oblivious to the other man's proximity.

"No, but I'm considering doing it to her," he admitted, voicing the thought that had been at the back of his mind since Jack had fallen off that wall, weeks before. "Life was so much more…"

"Fun?" suggested Jack, who had drawn away and was now inspecting the loot in the room the Governor had provided for Will.

"Yes," the younger man replied, "and just so much… more." He stated, unable to phrase his feelings better, but Jack nodded, understandingly as Will tried to continue, "When…" he broke off again, unsure about whether or not he should mention the next bit.

"When you were aboard a ship?" Jack asked, "when you were a pirate?" his grin widened as Will nodded almost involuntarily. He turned back to the boy, who looked tortured, and approached him. "It's in your blood Will Turner, you're a pirate, boy. Not a blacksmith, not some fancy nobleman," he use one of his expressive hands to indicate Will's fine clothing. "A pirate…"

"And a good man," Will added with a grin, remembering one of their first conversations with him hanging off the side of the boat. Jack laughed a little, still approaching.

"Yes," he agreed, "and a good man." Will found himself nose to nose with the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow, who was now muttering something about doing stupid things and opportune moments. The younger man moved his head forward slightly, tilting it so their noses didn't collide. He only needed to move it slightly, before his lips met those of the insane, and quite probably drunk, pirate, effectively silencing him.

As he drew back his thoughts coalesced into a plan and he sent a silent apology to his bride.

"Jack," he said, making the other man's eyes open. "Why did you come here again?"

"To hire a new first mate?" the pirate answered immediately recovering from the shock quickly, something a pirate had to be able to do, Will supposed.

"You've got one," Will said, leaning toward the other man for a second kiss, "Oh and Jack," he said drawing back for a second, "Nice hat…"


End file.
